1. What the master does to your guitar
The master works on the whole mix, not track by track. What happens to the guitar when mastering and what NOT to expect it to fix.
First, the most important thing and what unblocks you most: you don’t master the guitar alone. The master works on the finished whole mix (the final stereo or the stems). These “notions” aren’t a separate process for the guitar: they’re understanding what happens to your guitar when the song is mastered, so you make good decisions in the mix.
What the master does to your guitar (in context)
Master EQ (wide band)
The master adjusts the global tonal balance with gentle, wide EQ. If the master boosts highs to give the song air, your guitar also brightens (and so does its fizz). That’s why the brightness/harshness you “let pass” in the mix gets exaggerated in the master.
Compression / limiting (raises the level)
By raising the loudness, the limiting squeezes the peaks of the whole mix. Dense, already-compressed guitars hold up well, but if your guitar bus was squeezed to the max, the master’s limiting pushes it into sounding flat and lifeless.
Cohesion
A good master “glues” the ensemble: the guitar integrates a bit more with the bass and drums. But it’s a last 5%: if the guitar didn’t fit in the mix, the master won’t make it fit.
The rule that saves you from redoing everything
Real mastering is a later step (and there's a whole stage dedicated to it further on). For now you just need to understand how your guitar behaves when mastered so you don't make mistakes in the mix. There's nothing to 'nail' on the guitar because of the master.
What you should NOT chase yet
Your guitar mix to hear the before/after of the masterPending — this one is on you
When you have the guitar mix of the guide song ready (stereo bus), upload it to
prodmus_frontend/public/audio/guitarra/ in WAV 24/48. With that I’ll build an A/B mix vs mastered
mix so you can hear, on your own material, how the master brightens and squeezes the guitar.
Quick path — think about the master from the mix
Quick path
- Don't master the guitar alone: the whole song is mastered.
- Tame the fizz and mud IN the mix: the master exaggerates them.
- Don't squeeze the guitar bus: leave headroom for the master's limiting.
- If something about the guitar 'doesn't fit', fix it in the mix, not the master.
Expected result
Expected result
You understand that the master is the polish of the whole song and how your guitar behaves there: it brightens, gets squeezed and integrates a bit more. With that clear, the next section shows the concrete decision you do make in the mix thinking about the master: leaving headroom.